DO  THYSELF  NO  HARM. 

When  an  individual  is  observed  to  be  yielding  more 
and  more  to  the  ensnaring  power  of  strong  drink,  or  of 
profanity,  Sabbath-breaking,  immorality,  and  neglect  of 
the  great  salvation,  lie  replies  to  any  voice  of  warning: 
"If  I  am  doing  wrong,  I  am  injuring  only  myself — I  do 
no  one  else  any  harm."  But  even  were  this  true — which 
it  is  not;  for,  such  a  man  by  his  influence,  example 
and  connection  with  oiliers,  is  doing  serious  injuiy  to 
all  around  him  —  Ik;  forgets  that  in  doing  harm  to  him- 
self lie  sins  against  God  and  incurs  his  wrath.  God 
says:  "  Thou  shalt  love  thyself;"  and  God  also  says, 
"Do  thyself  no  harm." 

Now  look  at  the  harm  you  have  done  yourself  already. 

1.  In  regard  to  your  character.  A  most  precious  gift 
of  God  is  youi  reason.  Its  dictates  would  have  led  you 
to  God  in  sweet  obedience  and  confiding  love;  but  they 
have  not  been  obeyed.  You  are  a  moral  being,  and 
capable  of  noble  and  delightful  emotions  toward  all 
holy  beings,  similar  to  those  that  fill  the  bosom  of  an- 
gels; but  all  the  impulses  which  would  have  led  you  to 
harmony  of  feeling  and  character  with  God  and  nil  the 
good,  have  been  resisted  Dependent,  too,  as  you  have 
been,  on  the  divine  kindness  for  every  blessing,  you 
have  yet  been  a  stranger  to  pious  gratitude.  The  no- 
blest motU'es  that  ever  invited  a  rational  being  into  the 
service  of  his  Maker,  have  been  addressed  to  you  in 
vain.  You  may  stand  fair  before  the  world;  but  every 
tie  that  has  bound  you  to  God,  has  been  broken.  Can 
you  look  on  the  map  of  life  and  point  out  any  spot,  and 
say,  "  There  I  sincerely  and  cordially  sought  to  glorify 
God?"  Men  may  praise  you;  but  were  all  the  holy 
beings  in  the  universe  to  give  their  decision,  you  would 
sink  overwhelmed  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  condem- 
nation. Nothing  stamps  a  rational  being  with  such  dis- 
honor as  sin,  and  in  your  case  there  is  not  one  act  of 
holy  obedience  to  relieve  the  dark  picture. 

2.  S^e,  too,  the  harm  done  your  happiness.  You 
have  been  a  stranger  to  the  pure  and  holy  joys  of  God's 
service.  You  might  have  seen  the  world  in  which  you 
dwell   radiant  with   the  beauty  and  glory   of  God,  and 


%A  DO    THYSELF    NO     HARM. 

might  have  tasted  the  sweetest  pleasures  from  the 
vision,  had  you  not  suffered  sin  to  darken  and  pervert 
your  mind.  Your  early  acceptance  of  Christ  would 
have  opened  a  fountain  of  holy  joys,  and  the  streams 
issuing  from  it  would  have  run  along  parallel  with  the 
whole  path  of  life.  »  But  direct! ;/  have  you  done  vour 
happiness  harm.  You  hare  violated  the  laws  of  your 
moral  nature  by  disobeying  God.  The  wounded  flesh 
does  not  more  certainly  insure  pain  than  the  wounded 
spirit.  Suffering  treads  in  the  footsteps  of  transgression. 
You  have  fell  the  painful  rebukes  of  a  guilty  con- 
science. You  have  realized  an  aching  void  in  your 
soul,  which  all  you  have  gained  of  the  world  has  not 
been  able  to  fill.  You  may  have  drank  of  tin1  sweets  of 
earthly  bliss;  but  they  have  been  often  turned  lo  bitter 
waters  by  the  consciousness  that  you  were  starving  an 
immortal  mind. 

3.  See,  too,  the  harm  you  have  done  your  usefulness. 
Had  you  followed  the  first  impulse  you  felt  to  a  life  of 
piety,  by  yielding  your  heart  to  the  gospel's  first  ap- 
peal, what  a  blessed  influence  you  might  have  shed 
around  you.  What  salutary  rebukes  you  would  have 
administered  lo  evil-doers,  and  what  joyful  and  animat- 
ing encouragement  to  fellow-disciples.  Your  example, 
prayers  and  labors  might  have  turned  many  from  sin 
and  death.  One  and  another,  now  departed,  might 
have  gone  exulting  into  eternity,  praising  God  for  your 
happy  influence  over  them,  and  be  now  waiting  to  wel- 
come you  to  the  same  happy  home  in  heaven. 

4.  Most  of  all,  consider  the  peril  into  which  you  have 
brought  your  soul.  Here  has  been  a  dreadful  desola- 
tion. I3y  resisting  all  the  holy  and  reasonable  will  of 
God,  you  have  obliged  him  to  become  a  consuming  fire 
against  you.  Look  at  this  awful  attitude  of  his  holy 
government:  "Cursed  is  every  one  that  continue! h  not 
in  all  things  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them." 
Now  look  at  another  more  terrific  still,  if  possible:  "Of 
how  much  sorer  punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  be 
thought  worthy,  who  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of 
God,  and  hath  counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant, 
wherewith  he  was  sanctified,  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath 
done  despite  unto  the  spirit  of  grace  ?"  All  the  holy 
universe  would  approve  the  instant  infliction   upon  you 


DO    THYSELF    NO    HARM.  3 

of'the  sentence  of  eternal  banishment  from  the  presence 
of  God.  lis  immediate  execution  nothing  but  sovereign 
mercy  prevents. 

Have  you  not,  then,  already  done  yourself  harm? 
Linger  now,  for  a  moment,  on  another  point.  You  are 
the '.sole  author  of  all  tin's  evil.  The  combined  agency 
of  all  the  wicked  in  the  universe  could  not  have  done 
you  this  injury,  irrespective  of  your  own  will.  Who 
but  yourself  debased  your  noble  powers  to  the  service 
of  sin?  What  hindered  you  from  exerting  the  best  in- 
fluence on  the  best  welfare  of  others,  but  your  love  and 
practice  of  iniquity  ?  What  has  robbed  you  of  the  joys 
'of  holy  obedience,  but  your  refusal  to  obey? 

But  the  harm  already  done  will  be  greatly  increased 
by  continuance  in  sin. 

I.  In  respert  to  character.  All  the  dark  hues  of  ouih 
will  grow  darker.  Actions  dishonorable  to  vou  a*  a 
rational  being,  and  such  is  every  sin,  are  rapidly  accu- 
mulating; and  each  adds  a  deeper  shade  to  the  already 
melancholy  picture.  One  sin  blasted  the  honor  of  the 
angels  that  fell,  and  banished  them  from  heaven.  One 
sin  drove  our  first  parents  in  ignominy  from  the  garden 
of  Eden.  If  one  sin  stamps  the  soul  with  ignominy, 
what  is  done  when  increa>ing  years  of  guilt  multiply 
sins  by  millions?  To  what  a  depth,  O,  sinner,  are  you 
plunging.  You  are  sinking  in  the  view  of  God  and  m  11 
holy  beings.  And  to  such  a  point  is  the  matter  rapidly 
hastening,  that  God,  in  awful  justice,  will  suffer  you  to 
sink  where  the  shame  of  sin  shall  be  eternal. 

2.  See,  too,  the  increasing  harm  to  happiness.  Sin  is 
hastening  to  consume  every  form  of  it,  like  a  devouring 
fire.  The  last  draught  from  the  cup  of  worldly  pleasure 
will  soon  be  taken,  and  sin  will  leave  your  ^oul  incapa- 
ble of  any  other.  It  has  already  cut  you  ofF  from  hap- 
piness in  God,  and  when  the  poor  joys  of  this  life  are 
over,  the  cup  will  be  empty  forever.  There  is  no  de- 
stroyer of  happiness  so  terrible  as  sin.  It  cuts  off  the 
branch  and  tears  up  the  root,  and  burns  them  both 
together. 

3.  Go  on  in  ui  repented  sin,  and  tin1  spiritual  and 
eternal  welfare  of  not  one  human  being  will  be  promoted 
by    your    earthly     existence.      How     melancholy    the 


4  DO    THYSELF    NO    HARM. 

thought,  that  you  should  complete  your  career  on  earth 
under  il;e  accusation  of  having  never  exerted  the 
smallest  direct  and  holy  influence  to  turn  a  perishing 
sinner  to  G<hI.  Persisting  in  sin  will  involve  you  in 
the  guilt  of  knowing  that  multitudes  around  you  are  in 
danger  of  everlasting  burnings,  and  yet  leaving  them 
unblest  by  a  single  prayer  in  their  behalf,  or  a  single 
warning  of  their  danger.  Useless!  Oh,  think-  of  it, 
amid  the  rnost  exciting  motives  to  do  good  known  any- 
where in  the  creation  of  God.  Useless,  that  when  God 
has  revealed  lhat  every  sincere  effort  for  man's  salva- 
tion shall  meet  a  gracious,  an  eternal  reward!  Useless, 
when  through  Divine  grace,  you  might  have  turned 
many  to  righteousness,  and  with  them  have  shone  "  as 
the  stars  for  ever  and  ever!" 

4.  Go  on,  sinner,  ami  the  harm  will  he  fully  done  in 
the  ruin  OF  your  soul.  The  danger  is  not  in  the  fact 
of  past  guilt,  vast  as  that  guilt  has  been.  Your  mad- 
ness and  folly  have  indeed  fired  your  dwelling,  but  you 
need  not  peru-h  in  the  flames.  The  devouring  woes  of 
the  law's  vengeance  may  be  repelled  by  "  the  Lion 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah,"  and  all  your  guilt  washed 
away  in  his  atoning  blood.  .No  past  sin  necessarily 
seals  your  doom  ;  it  is  the  commission  of  another,  the 
rejection  of  the  Loul  Jesus  Cluht.  Here  is  the  dreadful 
peril.  ll  He  that  believeih  not  the  Son,  shall  not  see 
life  ;    but   the  wrath  of  God   abideih  on   him." 

Let  the  btuev'f  encc  of  this  warning  touch  your  heart. 
Paul's  cry  to  the  Phillippian  jailer  stayed  his  hand, 
and  saved  him  from  the  guilt  of  self  murder. 

Ii  is,  too,  a  timely  warning.  Had  Paul's  voice  reached 
the  jailer  a  moment  later,  it  would  have  found  him  wel- 
tering in  his  blood.     But  it  came  in  time.     So  does  this. 

It  may  be  the  List  warning.  Think  of  that.  God's 
patience  has  been  amazing  toward  you  ;  but  it  has  a 
boundary.  Your  rejecting  of  this  warning  may  be  the 
only  drop  wanting  to  fill  the  cup  of  iniquity.  Oh,  that 
you  would    heed  the  ap|**al,  perhaps   to  be   repeated   no 

more,  DO    THYSELF    NO    HAItM. 

PUBLISHED    BY    THE    SOUTH    CAROLINA    TRACE'    SOCIETY. 


Printed  by  li^aus  <fc  Cogswell,  No.  3  Broad  street,  Charleston,  S.  C. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


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